Turnovers help doom St. Francis

December 20, 2012

DAYTON, Ohio - The St. Francis University women's basketball team dropped its fourth consecutive contest Wednesday in the first game of the Wright State Tournament, falling to Florida A&M, 69-65.

For the second consecutive game the Red Flash (4-5, 0-0) had the ball down by three with under a minute to play but could not come up with the tying basket. Brittney Lilley and Alexa Hayward both missed 3-point opportunities with less than 30 seconds remaining as the Lady Rattlers (3-7, 0-0) held on to end their six-game losing streak.

"We need to quit turning the ball over," Flash coach Joe Haigh said. "You cannot win games by turning the ball over and missing open shots and we are doing both. We also need to stop fouling in key situations. That is something that has burned us in our last two games."

Alli Williams led the Red Flash with 20 points and 16 rebounds, but the junior forward was limited to just three points in the final 11:30. Shene Fleming posted her first double-double of the season for SFU with 11 points and 10 boards as she returned to her hometown.

Jasmine Grice, who entered the week as the nation's fifth leading scorer, posted 27 points, eight rebounds and six steals to guide the Lady Rattlers to the win.

St. Francis held a lead of 55-51 with 6:38 to play but were outscored 18-10 in the final minutes. Lilley nearly rescued the Red Flash with a 3-pointer with 1:54 remaining to give SFU a 62-61 advantage, but it would not be enough. Florida A&M followed the make by racking up its final six points from the free-throw line and became the first team this season to knock off SFU after trailing at halftime.

The Red Flash trailed by seven with 7:56 remaining in the first half, after a 3-pointer Grice, but SFU did not allow a basket over the next 7:35. St. Francis ran off nine points during the FAMU cold spell and turned a seven point deficit into a four point lead and took a 27-23 lead into the locker room at the half.